Archive for September, 2007

I have started to realize a growing trend. Titles in real estate articles are becoming more misleading. For example, many real estate articles in the Orlando Sentinel are seen to be anti-realtor or one sided when it comes to discussing real estate. If readers only see the title and the first paragraph, that is correct. But, this is not the case in terms of the entire articles. Each real estate article I have read in the past few weeks has had both sides of the argument; the problem is that most readers never see it.

An example of this comes from the Sunday Homes section of the Orlando Sentinel. The title of the article is “Real Estate woes have many thinking ‘for sale by owner.’” Only the first few paragraphs are on the front page. After that, the reader must flip to the middle to continue the article. For most, this is where the reading stops and the problem starts. This article discusses the advantages of selling your home without a realtor for about 2/3 of the article. Finally in the last few paragraphs the other side is discussed. The author explains that a lot of time, energy and money are required to complete the process yourself. The author gives a great argument against FSBO’s (For Sale By Owners) but I feel like it was too late. Instead of presenting the article as a discussion on FSBO’s, the title implies that since many people are thinking ‘for sale by owner’, it must be a great idea.

I feel that people should be educated about the real estate market. The way to do this is to immerse themselves with the current news. These misleading titles are making readers think the market is much worse than it is. Readers need to see past the headings and past the first few paragraphs and try to understand the entire article. If not these doom-and-gloom titles will continue to hurt our market.

To view the entire article entitled, “Real Estate woes have many thinking ‘for sale by owner’” visit the Orlando Sentinel’s website and search the article title at:

Today Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was seen on MSNBC talking about the Mortgage crisis with members of the House Financial Services Committee. He was discussing the possibilities of national standards being put in place for mortgage originators. Paulson says that it would be a step in the right direction to have these national standards.

Paulson also addressed the rising issue of foreclosures. He explained to homeowners that problems with late payments should be dealt directly with their lender as these problems arise. No one in the business profits from foreclosures so most lenders are willing to work with your situation to fix the problem before it gets out of hand. For a lender the process of foreclosing on a customer can be pricey, therefore they want to help you even if that means changing payment plans.

It is very important for homeowners to understand this concept. It seems like the automatic response of people who fall behind in payments is to hide from the collectors. With your mortgage, addressing the issue before it is too late can mean saving 100 to 150 points on your credit score. This should be motivation enough for homeowners to face the issue and do what they can to aviod foreclosure.